October 4th Email

Conference was awesome!

I loved Jeffery R. Holland's talk... A bunch of us sisters were watching it at the trail center, and we were all in tears... It was great! When you are a missionary you really gain a big view on service. You not only devote your life to others, but people all around you are constantly serving you... It's so neat to see how endless it is. And I'm sure it's a big comfort for missionary moms everywhere to know that their children are being loved... and believe me... WE ARE.

Things in Ralston are starting to pick up! So that's exciting... we had a WAY better week than the week before. We were able to finally catch Stewart Kinely, an investigater they started teaching before I got here. He's about 45 and his life has hit rock bottom. He's addicted to narcotics and he is on dialysis. We were teaching him a few days ago, and he opened up about a lot of things. When we were teaching him, I know that the things I taught him were NOT from me. Sister Stanger and I both felt the spirit really strongly, and when she was teaching, she was saying EXACTLY what I felt needed to be said, and vice versa. It was really neat. I love it when that happens! Stewart told us that he doesn't know who he is, and never really has. He was so sweet and sincere and I just want him to be happy so badly! He also said that he saw us walking around his complex one day, and he was in the middle of a "deal"... so he ran away so we wouldn't see him. He said we always show up and that he knows we're not just a couple of girls running around. That was COOL.

We met a less-active member named Kathleen Carlson. She's NUTS. I love her to death. We walked into her house and she had pictures of Elvis everywhere... no, not elvis... Elvis impersonaters!---they were signed, too. She also had a giant unicorn bolted to her wall, and lots of other random things. She told us she was tired of the "Bahoba" witnesses coming over and bugging her, because she already has a church. She then showed us all of her very original beaded creations, and gave us a thing to hang over our rear-view mirror. She told us several times that that's what it was for... sadly, president just barely told us not to hang anything from there, so it's layed nicely over the joy-stick.

Today we have a zone activity at a pumpkin patch. I've never been to a legit pumpkin patch before, so this should be exciting... most importantly, I get to wear pants! So naturally I'm ecstatic! =)

I'm loving Ralston, and I'm excited for the weeks to keep getting better! I love being a missionary! It's my favorite! I love you all!

Sister Bonelli